In her most recent statement, Ms. Rivers blamed the media for catching her off-guard in their questions on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, claiming that this caused her to say “Palestinians” where she intended to say “Hamas.”

This claim is not only offensive for its attempt to excuse her racist comments, but also is completely fabricated as she made comments that Palestinians “have low IQs” and subsequently appeared on Israel Channel 10 News to further make the anti-Semitic comment that all Palestinians should receive nose jobs. When asked specifically about Palestinian civilian casualties, she stated that they all “deserve to be dead.”

Clearly, Ms. Rivers fully intended on making the racist comments against the Palestinian people as a whole, and this weak attempt at giving a round-about response in the absence of an apology is even more offensive to the American people, and, frankly, an insult to the Arab-American community.

Ms. Rivers also ends the statement by trying to distract from the issue at hand by imploring people to turn their attention to “what’s happening in Ferguson, MO.” Not only is this an embarrassing effort to take away from her racist remarks rather than address and apologize for them, but also a complete disgrace to and making light of the further racial tensions taking place in Missouri. The fact that Ms. Rivers uses one racial issue to deflect from another is ironic at best.

We continue to demand that NBC/E!, AMC, and QVC take necessary disciplinary action against Ms. Rivers for her racist comments and her demeaning handling of the situation.

We renew our call upon our members to continue contacting Ms. Rivers’ employers to voice their complaints. Call QVC directly at 1-800-345-1515 to voice your disapproval of Ms. Rivers' comments. Members may also tweet @NBC, @AMC_TV, and @QVC with the hashtag ‪#‎DropJoan‬.

There is no place for hate speech on our American networks, no matter the minority group, and ADC will continue working for justice and equality in this regard.